By Tony Adibe
The Registrar and Chief Executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria(TRCN), Prof Jòsiah Olusegun Ajiboye has advised teachers and new recipients of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria certificates to regard themselves as the “redemptive force of the teaching career” and agents of positive change in the nation’s teaching profession.
Prof. Ajiboye also called for a new orientation, better attitude to work, and rebooting of skills in line with modern trends in the education sector. The TRCN Registrar stated this during the induction of 40 graduates of Godfrey Okoye University Enugu (GO-UNI) and the Institute of Ecumenical Education, Thinkers Corner, Enugu, respectively.
He said the teachers should not remain stagnant in learning and expect to be relevant in the new age of information explosion.
He said: “The event we are witnessing today is a demonstration of the zeal and commitment of the University and the institute’s management aimed at improving the teaching and learning process in the country as induction protocol is one of the critical elements that adorn a profession and make it clear that teaching is no longer an all-còmers affair”.
“You must become agents of positive change and erase from your heart, the negative stereotypes associated with the teaching profession.”
In his brief remark, the Vice Chancellor of the University and Rector of the institute, Reverend Father Prof Christian Anieke described a teacher as the agent who spends his lifetime making or moulding others positively.
Represented on the occasion by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Sister Prof. Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu, Prof Anieke also said the institutions will continue to collaborate with TRCN to train more professional teachers.
In a lecture entitled, “Teaching ACHING As A Profession”, the Dean Faculty of Education, Godfrey Okoye University Enugu, and former President, Mathematical Association of Nigeria, (MAN), Prof Uche Agwaga reminded the inductees that teaching is not an easy profession, stressing that it required years of training, dedication and organised behaviour.
Prof Agwaga outlined the challenges of teachers to include the presence of “unqualified, irresponsible, indiciplined and discontempted teachers.”
She said she regretted that in spite of all the efforts to advertise the importance of studying education and becoming a teacher, many Nigerians still assumed that “practicing the profession is an abomination.”
NewsBits learnt that at least 40 graduates of the two institutions were inducted during the event attended by the principal officers of the institutions and heads of departments.
